Damage

Every time I watch a movie that is based on a book, I can't help but thinking that it just can't be fair to the book itself. There will always be a way or another to minimize either the story or the characters. Based on the book by Josephine Hart, this movie is actually enhancing the book in so many ways.I saw the movie 14 years ago, when it was heavily criticized for the sexual scenes, the nudity, and the lack of dialogue. I loved it then and I come to love it even more now.In the book, the focus was on the emotional struggle that the main male character (Stephen Fleming) was going through. He lived all of his life being the good family man, good provider, simply playing it safe by the rules, until he meets Anna, the mysterious girl friend of his son. That's when he looses control and gets torn apart between his strong desire to have that woman and his sincere love to his kids.Anna would strike you as the cold, mysterious, kind of evil person who might have some emotional side to her, but it's focused on her selfishness and total consumption into her own emotional damage.Now, when Jeremy Irons is playing Stephen, and Juliette Binoche is playing Anna, the story was taken to a different level, where dialogue is not needed much to show the development of the characters.Binoche with the short hair cut, innocent yet very pretty face, and piercing looks is definitely making Anna the irresistible, mysterious, semi evil woman.Irons simply can show with his eyes the entire struggle and pain that Stephen is going through; I don't think any other actor could've played that role.The sexual scenes were way deeper than mere sexual attraction. I don't understand why they were criticized that much over the years, while the porn industry was blooming. The love scenes mostly focused on the two actors' faces and didn't show much skin as critics would say. The love making didn't focus on sex as much as on the desire of that man to bosses that woman in every way, and on the total physical submission she gave him, while at the same time she didn't give him her whole self.I don't want to ruin the plot for any body who's interested in watching the movie, but try to focus on Irons' facial expressions, on the scene after the public love making in France where he goes back to his room and lays crying on the bed, on the scene when he's naked holding his son, and on the final scene and its details("...she was no different than any body else").With two great actors like Irons and Binoche, you might be distracted from the other great actors like Martin (the son), Ingrid (the wife). Great movie, great music, great director BUT if you are a righteous person you might not like it; if you are a religious righteous person you will hate it (it might put you in confrontation with some puzzles about life and human limitations, that I highly doubt righteous people will understand).

The book, a slim volume written by Josephine Hart Saatchi, is written in a unique and poetic style. The film is as dark as the sky during a tornado and just as deadly. Both are entertaining and disturbing.This is not my kind of film but watched it because of my favorite actors, Miranda Richardson and Jeremy Irons. I think it is their best work. Ms. Richardson is heartbreaking at the end in the kitchen scene following a family tragedy. She brings you to copious tears. Irons is stoic, cold, unbending, and very believable as the errant husband who awakens sexually after meeting Anna Barton, his son's fiancee. Evidently, men over 50 CAN find love, even for the first time.Juliette Binoche, Anna Barton, is a study in evil from the first scene to last. She is despicable, deplorable, demonic and a consummate deceiver. She is striking, not pretty, rail thin, dresses only in black, and not remotely sexually attractive. When she first meets Martyn's father (Irons) she stands in front of him and stares at him like a dimwit on steroids. It is laughable. It's downhill from there. She latches on like a Pitbull and doesn't let go. Until she has to.The backstory is her brother, in his teens, commits suicide when she goes out on her first date and he realizes he can't possess her. Leslie Caron plays a cameo as her ditzy mother. Great cast. Great script. Great acting. Awful subject.I won't reveal the ending (you should read the book first) but it HAD to be tragic. A man falls in love with a badly damaged woman and risks his wife, son, British government job, his future and sanity. All for this insipid woman.The English countryside and old mansions are beautifully photographed. London is awash in rain and pastel tones. Binoche's clothes are bespoke and expensive, as are Irons. What's not to love?This is a great film to watch on a rainy day or evening over a large bowl of Chowder, white wine and a slice of homemade pound cake. It takes the sting off the ending and prevents you from trying to reach into the screen to strangle Ms. Binoche. More than once.I was devastated to learn the author, wife of English billionaire Maurice Saatchi, died a few years ago of cancer. Her writing is eloquent and so easy to read. She seems the last person to write such a dark and sad story of marital deceit. I wonder whom she is writing about in real not reel life.I totally love the book and film. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I love morally ambiguous story lines with an entire ensemble of morally corrupted characters, so this one was great. But the sex scenes were awful. It looked like two virgins on their first acid trip trying to figure out how their bodies work. And they each lasted barely a minute (no montage, just a straight minute). It was difficult to imagine that this woman would willingly carry out such a potentially damaging affair with a guy who makes sex look like a pelican trying to screw a weathervane during a storm.